Thousands greet Pope in Guatemala

Visibly exhausted after a week on the road, Pope John Paul was greeted by jubilant Catholics as a “symbol of hope” in Guatemala.

The frail pontiff will today canonise a 17th Spanish missionary who dedicated his life to helping the poor.

Organisers were expecting as many as half-a-million people for the canonisation Mass, the highlight of the Pope’s one-day visit.

Before dawn today, thousands of young people hiked from an all-night vigil to a racetrack where the Mass was to be held.

They spent the night waving candles and chanting “John Paul, Guatemala loves you” in a packed football stadium.

After tickets sold out, some 10,000 teenagers prayed outside.

Jubilant Catholics poured into the streets yesterday to cheer John Paul as his motorcade followed a path of pine needles, sand and flowers placed on his path by the faithful.

“It is a celebration, and all of Guatemala is partying. The Pope is our hero,” said Gladis Mendez, an 11-year-old hanging from a tree branch for a better view of the pontiff as he rode by.

The Pope said he was making his third visit to Guatemala as a “pilgrim of love and hope”.

The trip, which began in Toronto a week ago for World Youth Day and continues to Mexico, was starting to take its toll on the 82-year-old pontiff.

After surprising many by walking down the stairs of his plane in Toronto, he used a lift to disembark in Guatemala.

Aides pushed him in a cart to a raised platform at the airport, and held him tightly as he walked to a chair.

While John Paul’s voice was unusually strong in Canada, he spoke in heavily slurred Spanish in the welcoming ceremony.

The pope suffers from the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and from knee and hip ailments.

He said he hoped the canonisation of Pedro de San Jose Betancur could be “a true moment of grace and renewal for Guatemala” and help the country’s people in their search for peace.

Betancur, affectionately known as Brother Pedro, dedicated his life to helping prisoners, abandoned children and the handicapped in Guatemala.

Church leaders hope the Pope’s visit will also help heal wounds from the country’s 36 year civil war, which ended in 1996.